Since I Fell For You(94)
“Let me shove this last bite into my mouth first.” Suzanne’s cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk’s as she inhaled the pizza Jerry had renamed after Roman. “Best pizza ever.” She grinned at Roman. “You should get an award for creating that combination.” The kiss she gave him was the best reward he could have asked for.
Alec half-snarled, “Time to get to the explanations, Suz.”
Out of respect for his friend, Roman held back his grin that time. Drake, Rosa, and Calvin, on the other hand, didn’t bother. Nor did Suzanne hold back her eye roll at her brother’s irritation.
“In a nutshell,” she said, “one of the co-founders of CP Systems was upset about my progress on the new digital security product I’ve been working on for a while now. Even though they were nowhere near close to being able to launch it, he was hoping that if he could distract me enough with phone and server attacks, I would lose momentum. But when that didn’t work, and he realized I was away at the wedding, he decided to take things to the next level by switching out a chip in my home automation system.” She made a face. “The new chip would have controlled not only my temperature levels, lights, and Internet, it would also have been able to tap into my phone and any computers I connected to my home Wi-Fi. His partner, Craig, shut down production on the new chip last year because of privacy issues, but it turns out Patrick kept a secret stash just in case.”
“The scumbag was trying to steal her code.” Though Roman had long ago vowed not to use his fists unless absolutely necessary, he couldn’t help but wish the guy had put up a fight rather than going down so quickly. Smashing the guy’s pretty face would have been extremely satisfying.
“Could he really have done that?” Rosa asked.
“Not the whole thing, although he probably could have accessed enough messages sent between me and my development team to figure out our methodology. But the chip burned up before he could access anything at all.”
“Thank God you weren’t home,” William said, going pale at the thought of his daughter trapped in a fire.
“Everything’s okay, Dad. No one got hurt, and happily, there won’t be any more junk calls or server attacks.” She looked at everyone sitting at the dining table. “Thank you. Not only for being here today, but for always being here for me. Even when I tried to push you guys away, you never left me. You never gave up on me.” She turned to Roman. “Especially you.”
“When you love someone,” he said softly, “you stay. No matter what.”
And as everyone got up to give both Suzanne and Roman hugs, he finally understood: This is what it’s like to have a loving family.
* * *
Two hours later, Suzanne closed the door behind Alec and locked it with firm purpose. “I thought he’d never leave.” She walked into the kitchen, where Roman was loading the dishwasher. It turned out that big, close-knit families were not only great—they were also really messy. “He was afraid that the minute you and I were finally alone, I was going to jump you.” She kicked the dishwasher shut, then reached for the buttons on Roman’s shirt, deftly slipping them free one by one. “He was right.”
Roman didn’t waste any time on removing Suzanne’s clothes as he headed straight for her mouth. She tasted sweet and spicy and so delicious he couldn’t wait to make love to her again. And again and again and again.
Of course, that was right when both her phone and her computer buzzed with incoming calls.
Lifting her into his arms, he headed for the stairs. She’d already fielded enough calls and meetings for one day. Soon enough there would be more, and she would continue to thrive working with technology. But for the rest of the day—and the night—Roman was determined to give Suzanne the break she so desperately needed.
Fortunately, his bed wasn’t far away…and he was more than happy to keep her from work by any means necessary.
Only pausing long enough to strip away their clothes, Roman soon had Suzanne lying naked and warm and breathtakingly beautiful beneath him. “You went too easy on that scumbag today.” He ran his hands from her hips, up over her waist and breasts, until he was cupping her face. “It’s one of the millions of reasons I love you.”
“Millions?” She turned to press a kiss to his palm before teasing, “And here I thought there couldn’t be more than a dozen.”
“I already loved you a dozen different ways by the time we left the gallery that first night your brothers introduced us. By the time you kicked me out of your apartment that night, we were up into the hundreds.”